MU Biomedical - News

J. Adam Hall, a Ph.D. student in Marshall University's Biomedical Sciences (BMS) program working in Dr. Georgel’s laboratory, recently has been awarded a prestigious National Institutes of Health (NIH) pre-doctoral fellowship (Individual Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award) to investigate cell differentiation in mouse salivary glands. The award covers Adam’s tuition, stipend, and additional funds for research supplies for two years. The successful proposal focuses on epigenetic regulations of Sjögren’s Syndrome (dry mouth syndrome), an auto-immune disorder characterized by loss of function of the salivary glands. Adam and fellow student Nicholas Adkins have pioneered the work on the identification of a chromatin-associated protein (CHD-1), which apparently plays a critical role in sublingual gland differentiation. The current work is being prepared for submission to one of the top journals in the field of cellular differentiation (Genes and Development), with Adam as the first author and Nicholas as second author.             Adam is the very first Marshall University student to receive such an award. This success crowns an already brilliant student career. Adam was selected as the research student of the year for the BMS program in 2007/2008, received one of the best oral presentations award at the Asilomar Chromatin and Chromosomes Conference in 2007, and published two scientific papers.              His advisor and all BMS faculty are extremely proud of his achievement, and are expecting that same work quality and ethic to lead Adam to a very successful scientific career.